Stress Management: Doing Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Explains what progressive muscle relaxation is and how it can help reduce stress and anxiety. Walks you through doing relaxation exercises on various muscle groups. Links to info on other relaxation methods, including meditation, guided imagery, and yoga.

Stress Management: Doing Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Introduction

Have you ever had an aching back or
pain in your neck when you were anxious or stressed? When you have anxiety or
stress in your life, one of the ways your body responds is with muscle tension.
Progressive muscle relaxation is a method that helps relieve that
tension.

In progressive muscle relaxation, you tense a
group of muscles as you breathe in, and you relax them as you breathe out. You
work on your muscle groups in a certain order.

When your body is physically relaxed, you cannot feel anxious. Practicing progressive muscle relaxation for a few weeks will help you get better at this skill, and in time you will be able to use this method to relieve stress.

When you first
start, it may help to use an audio recording until you learn all the muscle
groups in order. Check your local library or a bookstore for progressive muscle
relaxation audio recordings.

If you have trouble falling asleep,
this method may also help with your sleep problems.

Progressive
muscle relaxation is a method to help you relax. You do a series of exercises
in which you tense your muscles as you breathe in and relax them as you breathe
out. You work on your muscle groups in a certain order.

Test Your Knowledge

Progressive muscle relaxation is an exercise where you
breathe slowly to relax your muscles.

Progressive
muscle relaxation can reduce anxiety, stress, and muscle tension, and it may
help if you have trouble falling asleep. It can help ease headaches by focusing on the muscles of the head, neck, and jaw. As you learn how your "tense" muscles
feel and how your "relaxed" muscles feel, you may be able to tell when you need
to relax.

Progressive muscle relaxation is easy to do. And if you
can find a place to lie down and get comfortable, you can do it anytime you
need it.

Test Your Knowledge

People who have anxiety, stress, muscle tension, or
trouble falling asleep may benefit from progressive muscle
relaxation.

The procedure

You can use an audio recording to
help you focus on each muscle group, or you can learn the order of muscle
groups and do the exercises from memory. Choose a place where you won't be
interrupted and where you can lie down on your back and stretch out
comfortably, such as a carpeted floor.

Breathe in, and tense the first muscle group
(hard but not to the point of pain or cramping) for 4 to 10
seconds.

Breathe out, and suddenly and completely relax the muscle
group (do not relax it gradually).

Relax for 10 to 20 seconds
before you work on the next muscle group. Notice the difference between how the muscles feel when they are tense and how they feel when they are relaxed.

When you are finished
with all of the muscle groups, count backward from 5 to 1 to bring your focus
back to the present.

After you have learned how to tense and relax each muscle
group, here's something else to try. When you have a very tense muscle, you can
practice tensing and relaxing that muscle area without going through the whole
routine.

The muscle groups

The
following is a list of the muscle groups in order and how to tense them.
Remember to lie down when you do this.

Test Your Knowledge

An audio recording can be helpful at first to
guide you through the muscle groups. Using an audio recording may also help you
tense and relax your muscles for the right amount of time. After a while, you
may be able to do this on your own.

An audio recording can be helpful at first to
guide you through the muscle groups. Using an audio recording may also help you
tense and relax your muscles for the right amount of time. After a while, you
may be able to do this on your own.

Now that you have learned
about progressive muscle relaxation, you are ready to give it a try. Check your
local library, websites that sell audio programs, or a bookstore for progressive muscle relaxation audio
recordings.

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